Near field communication (NFC) tags have been adopted in a variety of products and other contexts to provide a heightened level of interactivity. For example, NFC tags embedded in so-called “smart posters” may enable a viewer to use their phone or other NFC-enabled device to receive a web address, coupons, interactive content, or other data associated with the poster. As this technology becomes more widely adopted, however, the opportunity for exploitation increases. Malicious parties may replace or rewrite existing NFC tags to carry instructions or other data intended to scam or attack the party reading the tag. For example, a smart poster tag may be rewritten to point to a different website established to fraudulently extract credit card information from the user.
To afford security to NFC communications, the NFC forum has put forward a technical specification defining procedures for digitally signing the data carried by an NFC tag. Such digital signatures may provide an added layer of authentication whereby, when data read from an NFC tag cannot be authenticated, the reading device may avoid using the data in a way that may open the device or user to exploitation.